Belarusian authorities to control Internet

• 7.03.2008, 12:10

Question on legislative control internet media in Belarus is being considered at the expert level today.

It may be either a correction of current laws or a new short regulation, Liliya Ananich, first deputy minister of information of Belarus, said to a BelTA correspondent.

According to her, the problem of improvement of legislation in the sphere of internet media is topical. “It’s a difficult sector of the informational field. It’s difficult technically to control and register the Internet as itself. Not all sites work as media. One thing is to spread information about some products, another thing is to form informational and analytical blocks. In the second case, the Internet media should have the same rights and duties as all other media in accordance to the laws on press,” Liliya Ananich thinks.

She stated that “Russia has a declarative principle of registration of Internet media.” This question hasn’t been regulated in Belarus. Many people consider their projects to be Internet media, but when it is said about responsibility, we have no one to answer, because there are gaps in the legislation, no definition of Internet media,” first deputy minister of information noted.

“I’m not ready to say the exact date of this correction of laws. But the ground for further work on the control in this sphere is prepared,” Liliya Ananich said.